This Isn’t Efficiency — It’s a Clown Show with an Algorithm

Let’s talk about efficiency. Not the glossy kind in a corporate PowerPoint, but the kind our government trots out like a clown in a poorly tailored suit, juggling numbers and buzzwords to prove it’s doing something, anything, fast.

Yes, efficiency can be a beautiful thing. Fewer hoops. Shorter lines. Systems that work like they actually want to help people. I’m here for that.

But let’s not kid ourselves: efficiency, without empathy, becomes a blunt instrument.

You can be wildly efficient at deporting good, hard-working, well-meaning people who only ever wanted to contribute to the American dream. You can streamline cruelty. File it under “success” on a government spreadsheet. But that doesn’t make it moral, or just, or remotely American.

You can be laser-focused on trimming bloated bureaucracies—sure. But let’s not pretend that having an algorithm designed by five 20-somethings in hoodies make a one-click decision to fire tens of thousands of public workers by email is somehow “smart governance.” That’s not innovation. That’s abdication.

Efficiency without context is dangerous. Every case, every department, every person deserves a closer look. And if we’re going to be obsessed with efficiency, let’s at least get efficient about doing the right thing. Efficiently welcome immigrants who want to build, contribute, and thrive here. Efficiently review how departments function, then make evidence-based changes rooted in reality, not ideology.

Because here’s the truth: efficiency is only as good as the intent behind it.

Blind efficiency? That’s how bad decisions get made faster, harm gets delivered at scale, and nuance gets bulldozed in the name of “progress.”

So the next time someone tells you they’re making government more efficient, don’t just nod. Ask: Efficient for whom? And at what cost?

Because in a world obsessed with speed, the details still matter.

Mitch Jackson, Esq. (let’s connect on LinkedIn and Bluesky)

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